1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin-section manufacturing apparatus of making a thin-section by cutting an embedded block embedding a biological specimen taken out from the human body, a laboratory animal or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a related art, as one of methods of inspecting and observing a biological specimen taken out from the human body, a laboratory animal or the like, there is known a method of observing the biological specimen by making a thin-section from an embedded block of embedding a biological specimen by an embedding material, thereafter, subjecting the thin-section to a staining. The thin-section made from the embedded block needs to be cut uniformly in a thickness of about 3 through 5 mm and without damaging the embedded biological specimen in order to enable a cell level observation. Therefore, an operation of making the thin-section from the embedded block as in the related art is entrusted to a manual operation by a skilled operator by using a thin edge cutter maintained in a sharpened state. On the other hand, for example, in a preclinical test, embedded blocks of several hundreds pieces per test are made, further, several sheets of the thin-sections per one embedded block are made. Therefore, the operator needs to make an enormous number of sheets of thin-sections, and therefore, in recent years, automation of a series of steps of making the thin-section has been desired.
As a thin-section manufacturing apparatus of automating making of the thin-section, there is proposed a constitution including a cutter of sectioning an embedded block, a feed mechanism of sectioning the embedded block by the cutter by moving a sample base of fixing the embedded block to the cutter, a belt mounted with the thin-section for transferring the thin-section, a direction switching portion provided on an upper side of the cutter substantially in parallel with a direction of a cut edge of the cutter proximately to the cut edge, a rear roller provided on a rear side of the cutter, and a liquid bath filled with water on the rear side of the cutter and dipped with a portion of the transfer belt (refer to, for example, Japanese patent publication No. JP-A-2007-178287).
Further, according to the biological specimen thin-section manufacturing apparatus, the transfer belt is traveled while sectioning the embedded block by the cutter. Thereby, the thin-section made from the embedded block is received by the transfer belt and transferred up to the liquid bath on the rear side, detached from the transfer belt and floated on water of the liquid bath. Here, the transfer belt is a belt in an endless shape which is always maintained in a wet state by passing an inner portion of the water of the liquid bath, thereby, the transfer belt is made to be able to receive the thin-section by a surface tension of water.
However, according to the apparatus disclosed by Japanese patent publication No. JP-A-2007-178287, the transfer belt is dipped into water at the liquid bath on the rear side, brought into the wet state, thereafter, traveled to the front side and turned back to receive the thin-section. Therefore, water included in the transfer belt is dropped or perspirated during a time period of moving from the rear side arranged with the liquid bath to the front side of receiving the thin-section, and there is a case in which the transfer belt cannot be brought into the sufficiently wet state in receiving the thin-section.